Five seniors played their final regular season home game for the Cedar Ridge boys basketball team on Friday night. Among them was the school’s all-time leading scorer, Peyton Pappas, and the second-leading scorer on this year’s team, Jacob Thomas. They talked about CRHS’ 66-51 win, which improved their record to 16-8 going into the Big 8 Tournament.

Pappas, Thomas Talk Cedar Ridge’s Win on Senior Night

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Trailing 12-0 after three matches, defending 3-A Eastern Regional Champion Eden Morehead found a way to defeat Orange 29-27. Coach Bobby Shriner discussed his team’s gallant performance, including wins from underclassmen Mitchell Askew, Gavin Wiggins, Bailey Hawkins and Payton Wilson.

Orange Wrestling Coach Bobby Shriner Talks About the Panthers Season-Ending Loss to Morehead

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How do you silence a frenzied crowd rooting against you? Ask Mitchell Askew, who scored a stunning pin on Morehead’s Austin Hunt :31 into overtime on Tuesday night.

Orange Wrestler Mitchell Askew Discusses his pin of Morehead’s Austin Hunt

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There are few things for certain as the high school basketball regular season winds down.

Last year, the chase for the Big 8 Boys regular season championship came down to the final night, where Cedar Ridge rallied from 19 points down to stun favored Orange, giving Cardinal Gibbons the crown.

Any chances of the race coming down to the final night are remote, at best. Southern Durham leads Orange by a game-and-a-half with a 9-1 conference record. The Spartans also control the tiebreaker after its 80-62 victory over the Panthers on Friday night at Southern.

The Spartans have two conference games remaining, the first coming up tonight against Northern Vance. A win clinches the regular season title and the top seed from the Big 8 going into the 3-A state playoffs.

Another certainty is Chapel Hill faces a must-win at Orange tonight. The Panthers hold 2nd place in the Big 8 at 7-2, two games ahead of CHHS. After beating Cedar Ridge 75-67 on January 5th, the Tigers dropped six straight. On Friday, the Red Wolves got revenge on CHHS, winning 60-45.

The top three teams from the Big 8 will make the playoffs, and a logjam has formed in the past two weeks. Chapel Hill holds third place at 5-4, while Northern Vance is 4-4 and Cedar Ridge is 4-5.

There’s also little doubt Cedar Ridge is playing its best basketball of the season, albeit later than Coach Clay Jones would have preferred.

After stunning Southern Durham 80-75 on Thursday night, the Red Wolves turned right back around on Friday night to beat the Tigers. By now, it’s hardly news that Peyton Pappas was the Red Wolves’ leading scorer with 20 points. What is becoming a pattern is the continued improvement of center Jonathan Hall, who had 16 points. Jacob Thomas added 12.

Since Jones inserted an extra forward into the starting lineup in Shane Hill and moved away from a three-guard setup, Hall had 14 vs. Southern and 11 vs. Oxford Webb. Tonight, the Red Wolves travel to Northwood, who they defeated 68-61 on January 8th for its first conference win of the season.

As for Orange, the planets seemed aligned to finally beat Southern on Friday night. The Panthers had won eight of its last nine, including a win over previously undefeated Goldsboro on MLK Day at Durham School of the Arts.

Plus, Southern was playing its third game in three days, hours after the Cedar Ridge loss. Turns out, Southern gave new meaning to overcoming adversity both on and off the court.

The afternoon of the Cedar Ridge game, Southern coach Kendrick Hall’s wife was on her way to the chiropractor’s office when she was involved in an automobile accident. Hall rushed to her side and missed the first half of the Red Wolves game. He gave his team pre game instructions through FaceTime, and didn’t arrive until the second half.

Once Hall’s family at home was healthy, he could finally focus on his on-court family in a battle for first place against Orange the next night What he didn’t know was how suddenly fragile his team was about to become.

Just 80 seconds into the game, leading scorer J’Tori Christmas suffered an ankle injury. He left the game, didn’t return and left the game on crutches.

Still, Southern was poised enough to bolt out to a 10-2 lead, dictate the pace of the game, increase the lead to 21 points, and withstood an Orange comeback to win.

The Panthers host Chapel Hill tonight at Jim King Gymnasium at 7.

To the surprise of no one, the Orange Wrestling team will be in the same bracket as powerhouse Eden Morehead in the 3-A state dual playoffs, which begin tomorrow.

The opening two rounds will take place tomorrow at Morehead High School. Orange will open against Big 8 rival Chapel Hill, who the Panthers defeated 64-7 on Wednesday to win the conference championship.

The Morehead Panthers, 14-0 on the season, will face Terry Sanford in the first round. The winners of the respective dual matches will immediately face each other in the 2nd round.

If Orange-Morehead lock up, it will be the 5th consecutive year they’ve met in the state playoffs. Last year, Morehead defeated Orange 39-21 at Chapel Hill High on its way to its 2nd consecutive 3-A Eastern Regional championship. Fred T. Foard defeated the Panthers to win the state championship.

In 2014, Morehead also defeated Orange 46-24 on its way to the 3-A state championship, where they defeated Fred T. Foard for the title.

Morehead claimed another victory over the Panthers in the 2nd round in 2012, 34-31. In 2012, Orange defeated Morehead to win the Eastern Regional championship 40-20. Two days later, they would claim the state championship with a 32-30 victory over Southwest Randolph.

Morehead’s depth gives them another chance to claim a state championship. According to Retrorankings.com, MHS has eight grapplers ranked in the top 15 in 3-A for their respective weight classes, including Mike Jones (138) at #2, Jadakiss Jumper (145) at #1, Ben Bullins (170) #1, Will Dabbs (182) #2, and Tyler Dabbs (160) #9.

Orange has senior Joe Scott ranked #4 at 152.

A potential Orange-Morehead meeting brings about plenty of interesting individual matches, including Orange’s Bailey Hawkins vs. Morehead’s Zane Hairston at 120; Scott vs. Morehead’s Gideon Biggs at 152; Tyler Dabbs vs. Josiah Ramirez at 160 and Will Dabbs vs. Juan Torres at 182.

Hillsboroughsports.com will televise Orange’s matches tomorrow via Parascope. Look up Jeff Hamlin on Periscope for your smart phone or mobile device, and you can follow the day live.

Despite losing its leading scorer within 80 seconds of tipoff and playing its third game in three nights, the Spartans defeated the Panthers 80-62 to take control of the Big 8 Conference. Orange Coach Greg Motley discusses what happened.

Greg Motley discusses Southern’s Victory over Orange 80-62.

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Nothing sets off panic in the south more than snow. A little snowflake can cause a lot of headaches. Just ask local basketball coaches.

When school is cancelled, games don’t get played. That means coaches have to reschedule, which creates a frustrating cycle of phone calls, double checking with athletic directors to see when gyms are available and getting the word out to the media and fans.

Then comes the minor part of preparing for the games themselves.

On Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge had to practice for its Thursday game against Southern Durham at a nearby gym because it’s own floor was taken up by the wrestling team.

The team had barely seen each other since last Thursday, when they defeated Webb in Oxford. Four school days were cancelled. Not exactly the best circumstances going against a Spartan team that was undefeated in the Big 8.

If you wanted to bet against Southern Durham going into Thursday, obviously the odds would have been against you. If you bet on Cedar Ridge never trailing against the Spartans, you might have cleaned up for life.

But that’s what happened.

The Red Wolves jumped out to a 10-0 lead, never trailed and stunned the Spartans 70-65 on Thursday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Peyton Pappas led CRHS with 34 points, while Jacob Thomas added 17. Jonathan Hall added 14 as the Red Wolves won for the third time in four games to improve to 10-8, 3-5 in the Big 8.

“We did a much better job defensively,” said Cedar Ridge coach Clay Jones. “We didn’t a good job handling their press. These last three games we’ve played very well.”

Southern’s J’Tori Christmas, the Spartans’ leading scorer, finsihed with 13 points, but had only one field goal going into the fourth quarter. Rashad Dixon, matched up against Hall for much of the night, was held to 3, a season low.

Sophomore Antonio Daye led the Spartans with 22. The Spartans are 8-1, one-half game ahead of Orange for first place in the Big 8. Southern hosts Orange on Friday night, a game that will be broadcast here on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7.

Jones attributes his team’s turnaround to a change in philosophy. After going 3-for-47 from 3-point range during a 0-4 start in Big 8 play, he knew it was time to shift away from a three-guard starting lineup.

He inserted Shawn Hill and Shane Evans into the starting lineup and opted for a half-court oriented style.

“It’s helped take pressure off Peyton,” said Jones. “We’re getting the ball to Jacob and Jonathan more and playing much better.”

Now comes the headache of rescheduling. Coming off its biggest win of the season, Cedar Ridge has to turn right back around and travel to Chapel Hill tonight. The Tigers defeated

Though anyone around the program is too modest to say it, it isn’t the winning that makes Orange Wrestling such a power tradition. It’s the collecting.

There will soon be another trophy in the case outside Jim King Gymnasium after Wednesday night.

The Panthers defeated Chapel Hill 64-7 to win the Big 8 Championship. Orange finished the regular season 24-2, 6-0 in the Big 8. Over the past three seasons, Chapel Hill has been the main challenger to end the Panthers’ dominance. In retrospect, this year it was Northwood, who was one match away from the Big 8 throne. Only no one knew it at the time.

On December 16th, Northwood’s Michael Queen pinned Josiah Ramirez at 160 to vault the Chargers ahead 36-34. Only the 170-pound remained, with Panthers sophomore Jamar Davis facing Northwood’s Luke Orbich.

Not much pressure on Davis, a sophomore. Just a string of conference championships and a number one seed in the state dual tournament was all.

“I was nervous,” said Davis. “But Coach (Bobby) Shriner has taught me a lot and the partners I’ve worked out with have helped me. I’ve gotten better. All I had to do was go out there and wrestle.”

That’s what Davis did, comfortably taking a 19-4 major decision and Orange won 38-36.

Compared to that December night, Wednesday was anticlimactic. Chapel Hill did jump out to a 4-0 lead when Cam Bergey scored a 10-2 major decision. Then Orange’s Juan Torres improved to 30-12 on the season by pinning Brad Kenyon in 5:01, the first of eight Panther pins. It was Torres’ eighth fall of the year.

“Juan has been a little banged up as of late,” said Shriner, a former wrestler at UNC. “We haven’t practiced since Friday (because of snow) and when you go that long without working out, it’s hard. But Juan hung in there and he made a nice move on that double leg.”

Shannon Thompson followed with a 7-2 victory over Joe Cannon at 195, Orange’s only regular decision win of the match. Probably the biggest win of the night came at 220 when Orange sophomore Payton Wilson faced Chapel Hill’s George McBurney, who was gunning for his 100th career victory.

Not only did Wilson win, he earned an 8-0 major decision to up his record to 33-6 (McBurney got his 100th win on Thursday night over Northwood’s Wesley Roberson).

Chapel Hill’s only other victory on the evening was at heavyweight when Hudson Price edged sophomore Daylon Alston 2-1, which included a controversial penalty point against Alston for stalling that tied the match in the 2nd period.

Then Orange scored six pins in the next seven matches to put the championship on ice. It started at 106 when Mitchell Askew pinned David Cureton in 3:26. At 113, freshman Gavin Wiggins finished Zin Maung in 1:24. Then Bailey Hawkins pinned Wesley Kelley in 5:11. It was Hawkins 15th pin of the season and put Orange ahead 31-7.

Jamison Askew gained a 15-3 major decision at 126. At 132, Hakeem Jones pinned Jack Davenport in 2:22, which officially earned Orange the championship.

Gonzo Garcia (138), Charlie Fitzpatrick (145, his 18th pin of the year), and Josiah Ramirez (152, also his 18th pin) also scored falls for the Panthers.

Orange’s Joe Scott recorded a technical fall 18-3 to improve to 35-4, the most wins on the team.

The state dual team tournament field will be announced on Monday. It’s likely that Orange will be in the same quadrant as Eden Morehead, the team that eliminated the Panthers last season in the 2nd round.

The Panthers defeated Chapel Hill 64-7 on Wednesday night to earn its 14th consecutive conference title. Coach Bobby Shriner Discussed the sophomores who stepped up against the Tigers, and next week’s state dual playoffs.

Orange Wrestling Coach Bobby Shriner Talks the Panthers’ 14th Consecutive Conference Championship

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